Stefan Sinclair, Max Hoberman and I first started working together when Bungie was still located in Chicago. Stefan is a multi-talented programmer, a great person, and has a wickedly clever sense of humor. Max is the owner and fearless leader at Certain Affinity. I asked them a few questions about their experiences working on Certain Affinity’s Age of Booty.
Stefan and Max strategizing
David: What were your responsibilities at Bungie before joining Certain Affinity?
Stefan: At the time of my departure from Bungie, I was Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Business Development. However, my responsibilities had more to do with engineering than marketing or business development. Apparently Halo is well established enough that my expertise in marketing & biz-dev was not as critical as it once was. Originally I was responsible for rewriting the bungie.net game servers for the Myth games, then got the opportunity to work on the Oni & later Halo game teams, designing & programming a variety of systems from multiplayer game modes, networking, Xbox systems & integration, shell UI, even some graphics system work way back when.
Max: I started out on the publishing team when Bungie was (originally) independent, designing web sites, game packaging, etc. I got involved in almost every aspect of Bungie marketing, community, and culture. When we joined MS I started up Bungie’s “Community” team in an official way, re-created Bungie.net for like the 4th time, handled UI for Halo, etc. I eventually joined the dev team full time and was multiplayer team lead on Halo 2 and Halo 3. By this point I was pretty much management overhead, which is all I ever really set out to accomplish.
You were involved in the social features found in Age of Booty. As Certain Affinity goes on to new arcade titles, what additions or changes would you make to add even better support for social play?
Stefan: Age of Booty online multiplayer is pretty spectacular as-is. If there was one thing I would improve in our next title, it would be to extend the online party system to take advantage of new ideas we have about keeping friends together and having fun.
Max: There’s a ton that I’d love to improve, though I do think the baseline we’ve set with Age of Booty is sound. I’d love a map-sharing service, for instance, in addition to our system of viral map-sharing.
Halo is undeniably one of the biggest games made to-date; how would you contrast working on the Halo series with doing an arcade title?
Stefan: Working on a project of the size & scope of Halo necessitates a fairly large team, and as the Halo games became larger and larger, so did the team, and a byproduct of that was that the team members became more specialized. Working on a smaller game such as a typical Xbox LIVE Arcade title means that you get to wear a variety of hats. You might find a single person designing a game level one day, assembling UI screens the next day, and writing some game code the day after that. Very dynamic and lots of variety.
Some things which both have in common are that they were both very fun to play all through their development (and continue to be to this day) and that both had a very talented and passionate team working on them – two key ingredients to success in any game development endeavor.
Max: Working on Halo multiplayer, at least as a designer, was actually conceptually similar. We had a philosophy in both cases of having the game playable from day 1 and always keeping it playable, not to mention actually playtesting it daily. And by daily I mean every day, for nearly a year. Big and small, the two still have a lot in common in terms of functionality–a map editor and custom map sharing, matchmaking, achievements, and so on. The trick in both cases was designing fun core mechanics and giving people interesting environments to utilize them in.
What’s your favorite part of Age of Booty?
Stefan: Two things jump to mind:
1) When my AI buddies in the single player mode surprise me by reading my mind and doing exactly what I need them to do in order to further my strategic goals
2) Any time I’m playing in a large multiplayer game
Max: My favorite part is when I win a game.
Now that you’ve been through the creation of an arcade title, what words of wisdom do you have for anybody wishing to make an arcade game?
Stefan: Long ago when pirate ships sailed the seas, there was a pirate ship engaged in battle which was in serious danger of being boarded by the enemy. The captain of the embattled ship, upon realizing the predicament, ordered his first mate to run to his cabin and fetch him his red shirt. The first mate did as he was told, and upon donning his red shirt, the captain rallied his men and were able to turn the tide of battle until their enemies fled, taking only a few casualties in the process.
Later on that day after successfully repelling their enemies attack, the pirate captain and his ship came under the attack of not one but two enemy ships. Once again, things began to look very grim for our pirate captain and his crew, but once more he yelled to his first mate, “Fetch me my red shirt!”. His first mate did as he was told, and just as before upon changing into his red shirt, the pirate captain rallied his men to another incredible victory against the overwhelming odds, though this time they had substantially more casualties than before.
As the crew recovered from this latest battle and recounted the events of the day, one of the men asked their captain, “Sir, why do you always call for your red shirt during battle?” The captain replied, “With my red shirt on, you men will not be able to see when I am wounded in battle, and therefore will continue to fight unafraid.” The men murmured in agreement and admiration of their wise and brave captain.
The following morning at dawn, the pirate ship’s lookout sounded the alarm as five enemy ships were spotted approaching fast on the horizon. The captain, upon hearing the news, shouted to his first mate, “Bring me my brown pants!”
Max: I’d encourage someone wanting to create an arcade game to try to find a project that:
- Has vast personal appeal
- Will be distinct from the competition
- Has an appealing graphical hook
- Has a great deal of replayability
If you can go one step further and plan for something that can be easily expanded down the road you’ll also have a lot more appeal to publishers.
Almost all of the Certain Affinity team got involved in the making of Age of Booty at one point or another. If you could put together an ideal team to create CA’s next great arcade title, what would it be?
Stefan: We had a very outstanding team assembled for Age of Booty. There was one thing we were missing though, and that was an overworked & underpaid intern. If I had to put together another ideal team for the next awesome arcade title, I’d bring back everyone from the Age of Booty team and then give Skip Weasel a call to see what he’s up to these days.
Max: While it’s true a lot of the team got involved only a few team members were on the project start to finish–many got pulled in when we needed help and pulled off again when something more pressing came along. If I could put together an ideal team I’d start by putting more of our current team full time on the project, then complement this group with whatever skill sets the team was lacking. In our case I suspect this would be on the character side (modelers and animators), since we’re currently trying to fill these positions.
Working with Stefan and Max is always interesting, usually humorous, and a sure way to make a great game. In our last Developer Diary, I’ll be talking with the key people from Capcom to get the publisher’s take on the making of Age of Booty.
